Robin set off to the southwest, Xan and James following behind her quietly. Robin's heart was fluttering in her chest, and it only got worse when she looked up at James. James, for his part, seemed entirely unaware of her condition. Every time she met his gaze she had to look away, which was entirely ridiculous; she was Robin Hood, she had no time for boys, particularly boys she had just met. Besides, she had never really had a thing for boys before.

As the sun began to warm the air around them, the frost on the ground turned dewy, which only made Robin more worried. Setting camp on muddy ground would be a nightmare. Luck was on her side this time, though, and the ground stayed frozen - winter had officially set in, which meant the ground would not soften and muddy for another three months at least. By the time the ground softened, hopefully King Duncan would be on his way and they could wrap this entire scenario up and leave. Wouldn't that be spectacular?

"Hey, Robin," Xan said, dragging Robin's attention away from her thoughts. "What's about that over there?" Xan was pointing off to the right, and she followed his finger to a line of shrubs and underbrush. She smiled a bit; shrubs and underbrush grew thickest around the edge of the trees where they got the most light, which hopefully meant there was a clearing beyond those shrubs.

"Let's go investigate, shall we?" Robin asked, pulling out her saxe knife and cutting her way through the brush to the other side. A clearing about the size of an acre opened up in front of her, with a slight sloping hill going up to the opposing tree line. Tall grass waved in the crisp winter breeze, a few glimmering ice crystals still clinging to their tips.

Robin stared at the clearing, stopped dead in her tracks. A horrible feeling rested in the pit of her stomach, and adrenaline made her senses run on overdrive.

"It's perfect!" James declared, looking at the clearing happily. "Just enough room for everyone, but not so much room as to make it obvious."

"I think we've found our camp," Xan agreed, but Robin couldn't reply. She had seen this clearing before, and she had seen that hill; twice before, in fact, in a dream. The dream of Will's death. It was just as she had dreamt it, although far less bloody and without her mentor dying in the middle of it. The sight of it was enough to make her feel like she was paralyzed, and she swallowed hard. Her hands started shaking slightly, and she couldn't fight the feeling of panic rising up inside her. She thought she was going to be sick.

"Robin?" James asked, placing his hand on her arm. She flinched, and he dropped his hand quickly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she managed. "No. We aren't camping here." She looked up at the sun, and even though they had enough time to look for another clearing, she just wanted to get as far away from there as she could.

"Why?" Xan asked, looking at her with confusion.

"It's no good," Robin said through gritted teeth, backing up into the treeline. "The hill isn't positioned right, it would make the camp muddy when it rains. There's no nearby river, and it just won't work, okay? Let's go see what the others have found." She spun on her heel and retreated from the clearing, Xan and James following her after a moment's hesitation. She hoped desperately that they hadn't noticed her anxiety attack; she hated the idea that they might think of her as weak. She had to be strong, she was a Ranger, she was Robin Hood - there wasn't time for being afraid.

She squared her shoulders and walked confidently, trying to avoid thinking about the clearing. She focused on the path ahead of her, picking out the trail that Xan and James had left behind and heading back to the camp. She walked slowly so as not to beat the others back to the camp too badly, and indeed by the time they arrived Gilan had already returned. He was lounging in their old campsite with the two people he had left with, a fire already going with a pot of water over it for coffee.

"Any luck?" Robin asked, and Gilan nodded gleefully.

"As a matter of fact, we found the perfect place," Gilan said, and the two people with him nodded in agreement. "It's not quite a clearing, it's a place where the trees grew really big and tall though so there's a lot of space between them, and they block the sunlight so there isn't any undergrowth. And, because they are so big across the top, it'll shelter the camp some. It's also at the top of a hill, so all the rain will wash away."

"Sounds perfect," Robin said, the relief evident in her voice. There was a rustling noise and Robin looked up to see some of the people trickling back into the camp ground with supplies from their homes. In groups of two or three they appeared from between the trees, some with only small bags and some with large cases of things. A couple people even brought horses or mules, which could be put with the Rangers' horses.

The group of people sat in the sheltered part of the old camp as they trickled in one by one. There wasn't much space so everyone had to sit close, but it was cold enough that no one minded. The sun was at its peak when the last group, led by Alan, returned. He walked over to her and grumbled with irritation.

"We found absolutely nothing," Alan said, frustration evident in his tone. "There's like... nothing out there."

"It's okay," Robin said, and gestured for the others to join her. She asked what they had found, but the findings were unfortunately slim; Will and Halt had each found a clearing they thought might work, but Gilan's location was obviously the best possible solution.

"Well, I guess we're going to Gilan's spot," Robin said. The others nodded their heads in agreement, and Robin asked Gilan to tell the rest of the group.

"Hello everyone!" Gilan called, and everyone looked up at him expectantly. "We've found a site for our new camp!" The crowd cheered, a few even going so far as to pump their fists in the air. "It's to the south of here, we'll leave after a mid-day meal and begin setting up camp. For those of you who have supplies, if you have any spare food that you could share with others for their meal that would be excellent. Anyone who needs food, come over here and we'll see to it that you're fed." Will and Mauch shuffled through their own supplies and brought out all the food they had on hand to give to the camp's newcomers. About twenty people came up for a serving of food, then returned to where they had been sitting. A warm hum of conversation picked up, and Robin relaxed for the first time that day.

They ate quickly and then followed Gilan back to the place he had found, leading horses and bringing all their supplies with them. When they arrived, it was indeed the perfect camp site: not enough of a hill to ruin the camp, but enough to ensure proper runoff; trees to provide shelter and cover; open space to arrange tents with minimal underbrush; thick trees with plenty of dry kindling hiding underneath their outstretched arms... Robin only wished that the clearing from her dream wasn't in between this camp site and the town.

She wasn't afraid of the clearing because she had a bad dream; she was afraid of what it signified. She had never been in that clearing before, so how could it have been in her dream? She knew well enough that magic existed in these lands, and a dream to see the future wasn't all too far-fetched. By seeing that the clearing was a real place, it made her dream all the more real. No, she wasn't afraid of the clearing... She was afraid of her dream.

She didn't want it to be real.

She would do everything she could to keep it from being real.

But somehow, in the pit of her stomach, she knew that an arrow was going to get shot at Will, and there was nothing she could do to keep that arrow from leaving that bowstring.